Then logon to server that coldfusion is running on and create the connection to Quickbooks ODBC.
Finally in Coldfusion administrator, setup a datasource name pointing to the quickbooks ODBC connection.

Follow the steps in the link above to create quickbooks reports and views to use for the ODBC connection.

What if different custOmers with different QuickClips account use my site and need the connection? Is there a way to pass there account info to the datasource to get their specific info? Like a qb Id or something?

I recommend you come up with logical naming convention for the ODBC connections.
You can save this in a database table with the client login information, then your web page can query which ODBC connection to use for that client.

I know how to setup connections in coldfusion but need to know the connection string info or what username and password info they would need to access Quickbooks server. I want to connect to Quickbooks global server then use specific username and password, or whatever they require to determine which user information to pull

That's what I suspected. Do u happen to know where I can get the driver I need(direct link) to install the Quickbooks odbc connection on my coldfusion server, or is there a direct connection string that can be used in the cfquery tag?? Sorry and thanks in advance!

I want to build an application that will access individuals Quickbooks information on all different client machines, does this mean each time a person signs up, I have set set up drivers, have then set up connections, open ports, etc? So that my web app can query their data?

here is a description of the project, probably what you are looking for

Description:

ColdBooks is a free and open source tool that allows ColdFusion developers to work with data stored in Intuit QuickBooks. ColdBooks attempts to simplify the process of communication with QuickBooks by integrating with the ColdFusion administrator and allowing users to create and use connections to QuickBooks in a manner similar to ColdFusion data sources.

QuickBooks uses a tool called the QuickBooks Web Connector to talk to web-based applications. This tool communicates with these applications by web services they expose which implement a specific interface.

Historically, successfully implementing this interface has been challenging, especially in ColdFusion applications. ColdBooks has a generic implementation of this interface that allows ColdFusion developers to create applications that can asynchronously communicate with QuickBooks. Much of the complexity of this process is factored out and handled by ColdBooks.

The documentation provides a lot of helpful information to developers who are just getting started implementing QuickBooks with their ColdFusion applications.

The thIng I'm not clear on is does cOldfusion and Quickbooks have to be running on the same machine? I am building a coldfusion app that people that use Quickbooks can connect to my app or share their Quickbooks data and my app will read their data like a normal data source. Keep in mind that their data is on their local machine! So how will I query it?!? How do they share it? And how do I access their data??

This will not work. If you did get it to work it would not work well. Also you would be transmitting their data over the internet most likely with no encryption. For the most part Coldfusion, ASP.NET, PHP Etc. have a local (maybe not on the same machine) but local.

I have only setup one remote connection and we used SSL certificate on the SQL server and it was a pain.

I am not going to implement it due to security risks but the solutioned seemed the most appropriate. The problem really lies in trusting that the client set up everything perfectly and I cannot rely on this. Maybe I am asking too much :-(

That is one of the limitations, Quickbooks was designed for people who will run the application under their user account when logged in, the rest of the time it would shut down and will not be available.

Also each of the APIs provided to interact with Quickbooks requires the users explicit permission to access quickbooks data...

>> Does the web connector allow client to share data with my coldfusion app, and if so how would I access it?

Yes, the project is actually based on how you add datasources to CFAdmin, it allows multiple connections to multiple instances of Quickbooks. Each of these connections if given a name similar to DSN, the connection created generates a QWC file that the end user can use to connect to QWBC to specific connections in your CF. Once you establish a connection, then you can send messages to QuickBooks regarding what you want it to do, which can be almost anything, like listing accounts etc....

So I am clear, you are saying that I need to install the web connectors on any client machine that needs to work with my site? Also once that's done how do I set up the dsn in coldfusion to read that clients Quickbooks also hornworms I query their info? Table names, etc.

I cannot get coldbooks to work, I get this error after installing it in coldfusion

Bean definition for bean named: ColdBooksSecurityService could not be found.

The error occurred in /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/coldspring/beans/DefaultXmlBeanFactory.cfc: line 646
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/coldspring/beans/DefaultXmlBeanFactory.cfc: line 644
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/externaladapters/beaninjection/ColdSpringBeanInjector.cfc: line 40
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/module/XMLModuleLoader.cfc: line 227
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/module/XMLModuleLoader.cfc: line 101
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/modules/internal/configuration/controller/ConfigurationController.cfc: line 21
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/eventrequest/EventContext.cfc: line 298
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/eventrequest/EventContext.cfc: line 225
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/eventrequest/phase/Configuration.cfc: line 27
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/eventrequest/EventContext.cfc: line 155
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/ModelGlue/gesture/ModelGlue.cfc: line 215
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/modelglue/gesture/ModelGlue.cfm: line 58
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/index.cfm: line 48
Called from /Applications/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/CFIDE/administrator/ColdBooks/Application.cfc: line 102
644 : <cfreturn variables.parent.getBean(resolvedName)>
645 : <cfelse>
646 : <cfthrow type="coldspring.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException" detail="Bean definition for bean named: #resolvedName# could not be found."/>
647 : </cfif>
648 :